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00:00This deity, Janna, is going to help us grasp why watching Arkane really is IQ diff.
00:06The first question that becomes important after watching this series is,
00:10are we actually smart enough as Arkane's audience to grasp
00:14what is going on in the series? Do we understand everything?
00:18Or rather, are we able to pay attention to all of the important details that we are presented
00:22visually, audibly and metaphorically? Doing all of this while also keeping up with the
00:28narrative of the show, which is also very important.
00:31When the floor around Mal isn't damaged, do we notice it?
00:35Once Maddy is outed as Mbessa's spy, do we revisit episode 1 to observe that it was her smoke
00:42that provided cover for Mbessa's forces? Understanding Arkane is a brain gap,
00:47because of the copious amounts of information one has to process at a single given moment.
00:53And even if you do manage to catch everything that's given to you in the series,
00:57you might not play League of Legends, meaning there's a whole layer of lore
01:01and references that you might not even understand from that aspect.
01:06This all leads us to the best example that I've got.
01:08Janna's involvement in the second half of the series is extremely underplayed,
01:13while doubly as important. While Teemo will show up in games in the series,
01:18books or get referenced in Isha's hat design, his role is limited to just visual references
01:23and representations. He never really impacts the stories, whereas a character like Janna
01:29that we don't see does impact the story. Before we get into how she does this,
01:34I think we need to understand who Janna is. She is a windspirit, revered as a protector
01:39and a saviour by those in Zaun. Legends describe her as a benevolent goddess who
01:45calms storms, guides ships and brings good fortune to those who honour her.
01:51In the polluted, poverty-stricken depths of Zaun, Janna's presence became more pronounced as she
01:57transitioned from a maritime protector to a guardian of those who struggle in Zaun.
02:04These Zaunites, plagued with industrial hazards and chaotic living, turned to the goddess for
02:10her aid. It is said that in moments of despair when life's hanged by a thread,
02:14a sudden gust of wind or appearance of a blue-clad figure signifies the appearance of this
02:22deity. She is a symbol of hope and resilience to the oppressed members of Piltover's undercity.
02:28Her presence in Arcane is first awakened by a grief-stricken top-sider named Caitlyn Kiriman,
02:35who would ironically prove to be the deity's main opposition in the series. Caitlyn's emotions stir
02:42and Janna responds by gently lifting the flower petals that she had set on her mother's grave.
02:49We know it's Janna doing this here because of the spiral shape of the wind structure
02:53and the shape of the wind blowing the petals around it. This is of course in keeping to her
02:59Q ability in League of Legends. The next metaphor reads like this. Caitlyn wants to take these
03:05petals that Janna has lifted, i.e. lifting the weight and the grief of her mother's death,
03:10and she wants to take these petals and drop them down on Jinx. Basically, she wants to kill Jinx
03:17on the battlefield, bringing revenge to her mother and putting Jinx in the same state.
03:22This is the root of Caitlyn's questionable behavior in the second season. Her rage leads
03:28her to unleash the grey on the undercity. The grey is a form of toxic gas that affects one's
03:34ability to breathe and corrodes their organs. Caitlyn uses this as a tool to hunt down the
03:39chem barons, specifically Marco and Kroos. We can see that Janna doesn't intervene with these
03:45chem barons' fates. However, this blue figure does intervene when it comes to a certain character.
03:53This other figure that she calls out to is also deeply tied to the color blue. It's Jinx. After
04:00being exposed to the grey and angered by her sister's betrayal, Jinx heads down to the main
04:05air ducts of the undercity and ends up releasing Janna's rage upon Topside, leading the citizens
04:12of Piltover to get gassed by this toxin, the grey as well. This is somewhat a great balancing act.
04:18It acts as redemption for the undercity. After this balancing act plays out, Caitlyn seizes her
04:25use of this poisonous gas in Zaun. What this scene between Vi, Caitlyn, Savika and Jinx also
04:31did very quietly is that it turned Jinx into Janna. They are the same thing. The IQ diff parts about
04:39all of this being that none of it was ever explained. Jinx and Janna become the same entity,
04:44which is why Jinx has this cult following that starts treating her much better than she treats
04:50herself. They are also tied deeply again to the color blue, which is a crossover to Janna as well.
04:57In fact, the more you watch the series, you start to realize how often this intertwined
05:01relationship between Jinx and Janna was hinted at the entire time. For me, the blatant direct
05:08references begin with Jinx's hideout, which is formed with huge propeller blades. Her entire
05:15motif has often been tied to wind, from her tattoos to the crows that often follow her around
05:21being winged creatures. Also to her not being able to sink with Silco when he goes deep into the
05:28water. Another one is this from the first episode, something that is revisited in the last scene of
05:35the series. One day I'm gonna ride in one of those things. Even in the Great War, when she arrives
05:41with Echo, another character who's loosely tied to wind because of the firelights and the boards
05:47they ride, they arrive to the battlefield in the sky. When Jinx reminds Vi of the old bedtime
05:53stories that Vander would tell them about this wispy wind woman, as she puts it, this deity,
06:00she does it in a mocking way. She's not really a believer of this Janna figure and the power that
06:07this Janna figure has, which is peak irony because for most of the series, this entity,
06:13this deity Janna, has chosen Jinx as a vessel to operate her actions through. She becomes Zorn's
06:20hero, their salvation. The last time we see Janna's intervention is way more subtle, but again
06:27tied to death. It is when they do the tributes to everyone who passed away in the war, and we can
06:33see the wind softly and gently take away all of these names as somewhat heroes of the city. That
06:41is what Janna is about. She is about the protection and the honoring of this great city of Piltover
06:50and Zorn. Now I'm sure by watching this video you would have already started to realize the
06:55copious numbers of times we see Jinx tied to references of the air or associated with winged
07:01creatures, stuff like that. You can now just begin to stomach and let it sit in that none of these
07:07associations are unintentional and even small things like her always hovering above Soko's head
07:13in the last drop are a nod to this Jinx and Janna parallel. She is meant to be associated to the
07:20sky. Her supposed death plays out as a scene of her falling from grace, falling out the sky, going
07:29deep into the waters of death like Soko did. But of course we know she survived. This is the part
07:34of Arkane that makes it a masterpiece and it's also the part that makes it very hard for most
07:40of us to understand. A lot of this stuff goes over our heads until we find a YouTuber like myself who
07:45meticulously watches the series and breaks down things that we missed or did not catch. We can see
07:52that they've managed to tell an underlying narrative of this god that comes and saves a city
07:58from themselves without ever having to tell that story. This is why Arkane is IQ diff. As much as I
08:06could give you this Jinx and Janna parallel which I find amazing, I might have missed a hundred other
08:11things with a character like Victor which is maybe someone I should look into anyway. But for now I
08:16just want to give an appreciation to how tight Arkane actually is. I'm going to keep saying it,
08:25this show is a masterpiece. This is Lloyd signing off, peace.